Guard Guy

Janel, I respect what you've said here and agree with your observation that anybody who is approached by God for a task is truly special! I want to encourage you to be careful about suggesting that if Mary had refused God's request, His plan would have been defeated; rather, trust that He will complete His plan according to His will, using any human who says "yes" to participation in His plan. - Guard Guy

Please see my response to Question 3, above; I think I pretty well covered these questions in that response.

Mary's response serves as a model for the response each professing Christian should make to God's call. We should exhibit the same trust in God's motives and abilities, knowing that He calls us into union with Him through obedience of Him. I'm amused by the characterization of Mary's response as "informed consent". How really informed are we, really? We are as informed as Scripture permits us to be, if we learn its message and open ourselves to faith in that message. Mary was apparently as "informed" as she felt was necessary to her call, judging by her lack of any more than nominal hesitation to participate in this part of God's plan. When we respond to God, we consent to love Him and to love His creation (i.e., to love others as we love ourselves) and to participate in His plan to reconcile Himself with the sin-burdened world.

I think the means of Jesus' conception are truly fascinating! The Holy Spirit is to "come upon [her]" and she is to be "overshadowed" by the Power of God; this reminds of of how the Spirit of God moved over the void and formless womb of creation before the details were filled in, as recounted in Genesis 1 and 2. I have developed a belief that the conceived Jesus was created within Mary's womb much like Adam was created; this draws upon Paul's similar characterization of Jesus as the second Adam. This approach also helps me with the challenges created by the different belief that Mary was without sin; I struggle with this idea because that would mean that Jesus wasn't the only sinless human, and that seems to dilute His value as the unblemished sacrifice. The belief I have been working with assumes that Jesus was not formed by the union of sperm and egg, so that Mary was not His biological mother. That helps me understand Matthew 1:25 in the context of the virgin birth; if Joseph abstained from sex until after Jesus was born, Mary would still be a virgin when she delivered Jesus. God created Adam without need for union of sperm and egg - or, at least, that is how Genesis seems to describe the creation process - so He would not need that union to occur for Jesus' conception, either. I think this drives home the importance of the virgin conception to the Christian message, i.e. that God is the source of all creation, that Jesus was/is without sin because His human being was created without the stain of "original sin" and that He was/is the only sinless human. If there are any Roman Catholics participating in this forum, please know that I am not attacking Roman Catholic beliefs regarding the blessedness of Mary. Scripture assures us that she is blessed among women, having been selected by God to be the woman through whom Jesus was delivered into this world. I just think we need to be careful not to attribute too much to any human who is born via the normal route of conception, and who thus carries the burden of sin inherited from Adam and Eve as described in Scripture.

When visited by an angel, both Mary and Zechariah are smart enough to know that the circumstances of their lives seem to contradict what the angel has said will happen. Their responses seem to indicate the depth of their faith in God's power, though. When Mary receives her angel visitation, she wans to know "how" she could become pregnant without having sex with a man. She know what needs to happen - normally - and she knows it hasn't happened yet. The text suggests to us - and maybe I'm just reading into it more than this - that Mary trusted that what she was told could come true, but was unclear about "how". In contrast, Zechariah's "how" question seems more doubtful in tone - he wants to know what proof he will receive that the angel's statement is true.

Gabriel's announcement was amazing! He told Mary she would become pregnant, when she knew she was sexually innocent and would be exposed to great social risk. He told her that her child - a son (no ultrasound needed!) - named Jesus (no decision needed by she and her husband to be!) - Son of the Most High God (paternity that would be hotly debated in future years, yet would be ultimately indisputable!) - and that He would be the greatest ever born, by serving His people as their rescuer.